


on the depths of bonds

by LadyMarshmallow



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bring Back the Blackleg Sanji Tag, Compare and Contrast, Family Feels, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, No Romance, References to Siblings Bullying their own Sibling, Sanji Is Not A Vinsmoke, no beta i die by my own sword, speculative fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29734716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMarshmallow/pseuds/LadyMarshmallow
Summary: Zoro is made of all things sharp and hard, a demon hiding behind a human's skin.Sanji will choose him every time.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji, Vinsmoke Sanji & Vinsmoke Family
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	on the depths of bonds

**Author's Note:**

> Before you proceed, please be warned that there is plenty of reference to Sanji's past in here with the Vinsmokes. I don't think it's explicit, but there are implications of abuse in this fic, so if that makes you uncomfortable, best to just skip this one. 
> 
> If you don't mind any of the above, I hope you have a great read.

✦✧✦✧

In the Blue Sea of the East, people whisper about a monstrous beast carrying three swords. 

They say:

Pirate Hunter Zoro is a demon.

Funnily enough, it's what they say about the Vinsmoke family dominating the North, too.

Sanji thinks it's a load of bull.

Because in a twist of fate, Sanji, hailing from one sea and thriving on the other, has met both, and no matter how much strangers in the streets and behind alleyways claim the two to be similar, Sanji knows that their hearts and their cores are really three-thousand worlds apart.

One is a monster.

The other is the swordsman of the future Pirate King.

✦✧✦✧

Yonji has once said that he wants to become stronger than anyone else.

_So I can put those weaklings in their place_ , is what he boasts his reasons to be.

In front of him, the towering figure of Vinsmoke Judge looks on with a twisted sense of pride.

Zoro seeks to stand on top of the world as the strongest master of blades.

He doesn't say why, but Thriller Bark tells Sanji more than enough.

"I will become the strongest," Zoro vows with a sharp metal forged from a promise between his teeth, and Sanji knows it is so he can bleed for them and propel all their heavy dreams forward.

✦✧✦✧

Within the brick walls of the bleak castle, Sanji curls up underneath his covers. It is warm inside his room, but Sanji's tiny limbs are shaking like he's freezing beneath multiple layers of snow, his body coiled tightly like a spring, ready to leap into action at the smallest of sounds. He knows he can never let his guard down — the threats of harmful pranks and the promises of pain are simply too terrifying to ignore, so he has taught himself to always sleep with one eye open.

But exhaustion takes its toll on the body and hyper-vigilance can sometimes slip, and Sanji finds himself sleeping soundly only to be interrupted by a loud banging noise as Niji kicks his door open.

"Wake up, loser," Niji yells with a manic grin on his lips with Yonji and Ichiji right behind him, both looking just as mischievous.

Sanji does not even have time to run as the three of them throw something at him, his entire body locking in panic when he realizes that there are long redheaded centipedes and giant hissing cockroaches on his bed, crawling all over his blanket and legs and arms.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Sanji pleads with tears running freely down his cheeks, but his cries are drowned out by the other three's reverberating laughter.

They don't stop until Reiju comes to shut them up, grumbling when she drags them out of his room and orders them to leave him alone.

Still.

Sanji doesn't sleep for three days straight.

Inside their quarters on the heart of the Thousand Sunny, Sanji's sleep is interrupted by a dark-soled boot slamming to his side, the owner giving him a one-eyed glare of annoyance as he kicks him awake for talking loudly in his sleep.

"Stop proposing to random women and sleep quietly, idiot cook," Zoro grumbles as he takes his boots off and haphazardly throws them to the side, clearly ready to end the day and go to sleep — it's already ten minutes past four o'clock in the morning after all.

Unhappy that his sweet dream of the amazing Nami-swan and wonderful Robin-chan is interrupted right when it's finally getting good, Sanji rolls to his side to face Zoro and immediately pretends to snore, trying his hardest to sound as loud and as obnoxious as he can. He feels a vindictive sort of glee when he hears Zoro growl in annoyance — he counts it as his victory when the moss head turns and buries his face under his pillow with a muffled curse.

And when Sanji finally falls back asleep thirty seconds later, he dreams of mermaids.

✦✧✦✧

Sanji is afraid of a lot of things.

He doesn't like the dark and the booming sound of thunder every time it storms. Flashes of lightning make him want to hide behind his mother — he does until he can no longer do so — while bugs and insects make him want to scream.

His mother's husband and their children don't seem to fear anything, and Sanji should have been following their example, but he fears them too.

He fears them the most.

Because the man who claims to be his father and the children who say that they are his siblings are like bloodhounds, able to smell the barest hint of fear from three-hundred miles away, using it to their advantage to inflict immense damage to someone's psyche.

Sanji, small and shaking like a leaf, is no match against them, so he bows his head, shrinks back, and accepts whatever lashing and insult they want to give him.

They teach him early on that fear is a paralyzing weakness that can lead to instant death.

And when they start to make fun of everything that makes him quake, Sanji does his best to conceal it.

Sanji is in the middle of checking their food supply inventory when he spots an eight-legged terror threatening to disturb the peace of his kingdom. It is about the size of his palm, hairy and full of unblinking eyes, staring at him like it wants to make a meal out of him.

It's plenty creepy, and Sanji immediately leaps to his feet before his own heart jumps out of his chest. He rushes out the galley's door and doesn't hesitate to scale the height of the crow's nest where he knows the last member of their crew who is still awake at such unreasonable hours is still sitting awake, the light of the full moon illuminating his path.

"Kill it," Sanji orders the moment his head pops out of the entrance to the crow's nest, not even bothering for a hello.

On the seat by the large window, Zoro interrupts his stargazing to level him with a one-eyed inquisitive gaze, a reaction that earns him a roll of eyes from Sanji.

"There's a spider near the kitchen stove. Kill it," Sanji repeats, stressing the last sentence to convey a sense of urgency.

In response, Zoro raises a brow at his demand, his gaze intense in a way that makes Sanji want to squirm.

"You've gone deaf or what, marimo?" Sanji prompts with a hiss, already descending down the ladder.

Zoro still doesn't say anything, but Sanji does manage to catch a glimpse of him standing, taking his time to stretch before jumping from the crow's nest and straight down on the deck below, his action rocking Sunny a little and making Sanji curse under his breath.

"Show-off," Sanji grumbles, following Zoro to the kitchen.

Once there, Sanji points to where the spider is still happily lounging with its infinite eyes and many legs, backing away the moment Zoro makes a move to walk towards it. Watching his crewmate, Sanji presses his back against the galley door, making sure that he has enough room to bolt if ever the spider decides to make a break for it. Sanji then waits with bated breath as Zoro coaxes the spider into his hand, and the sight of it crawling on Zoro's palm makes Sanji shudder.

"Get out of the way, dumbass cook. You're scaring the poor thing with your ugly swirly eyebrows," Zoro huffs, giving his shin a weak kick all the while stretching his arms opposite from where he stands as if to make sure that the insect stays as far away from him as possible.

Sanji retaliates by trying to give Zoro a half-hearted kick to the head — Sanji tries to reason to himself that the lack of enthusiasm applied to his kick is only due to the fact that knocking the moss head unconscious will end with the spider escaping, and that's really the last thing Sanji wants to happen — one that Zoro dodges easily, the spider still carefully angled away from Sanji.

Fear is a weakness, but watching Zoro release the spider on Sunny's figurehead — of course, the marimo doesn't kill it; he's soft like that — Sanji doesn't worry. After all, despite their constant rivalry, despite all their disagreements, Sanji remains confident that Zoro will never make fun of his fears, no matter how small and insignificant they may be.

✦✧✦✧

Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji laugh at his softness, cold and mocking.

"You're weak," they remind him with cruel eyes while Reiju turns her back and pretends she doesn't hear a thing. 

Judge belittles what he wants to become, sneers at his kindness, and tells him he's a disappointment.

Zoro scoffs at him and insults his eyebrows, makes daily passing comments about how he's a pervert.

"Your face is gross," Zoro huffs as he walks by him.

He also calls him cook, eats every meal he prepares with gusto, and asks for another serving of food.

✦✧✦✧

The Vinsmokes are walking into a trap, and Sanji hasn't forgiven them, but Reiju is there, and she will get hurt if he doesn't do something, so Sanji runs into the air with fire on his legs and rescues Judge and his children from the clutches of Big Mom with a blazing kick.

Because despite all the memories of a humid dark cell and a suffocating cold metal around his head that still haunt him at night, despite all the faded scars and bone-deep wounds he has received from them that are only beginning to really heal, he doesn't want them dead.

_(It's because you're kind_ , Luffy tells him with pride, and it's the first time Sanji sees his kindness as strength.)

Sanji watches with barely concealed horror as Zoro drops from a poison meant to take out Luffy, his breathing becoming quick and shallow, hacking up blood as a sickening purple spreads beneath his eye with worrying speed.

Sanji's heart stops at the sight, and he feels like he's the one who can't breathe, but he's only frozen for half a second before he rages and unleashes hell.

Because even if Zoro is perpetually lost and a high grade dumbass, even if he gets on every bit of Sanji's nerves on the best of days, he will always be his.

✦✧✦✧

The Vinsmokes are demons in all the ways possible, and they are blood.

Zoro is a demon masquerading as a man, but he is family.

✦✧✦✧

**Author's Note:**

> \- I can't get this entire thing out of my mind, so here it is. I don't know. I'm just in the mood for some good Sanji-Zoro friendship. Personally, I don't ship them, but boy do I love the idea of them being those bickering friends.
> 
> \- Actually, they are brothers, your honour.
> 
> \- I have so many ideas about Sanji and Zoro's friendship. Here's my interpretation of it.
> 
> \- The Vinsmokes are assholes, and although Reiju helped him in the end, she's still guilty. Good on Sanji for not forgiving them.
> 
> \- Also the Straw Hats being possessive of each other is so good.
> 
> \- The Straw Hats' intense love for every member of the crew without it being romance is also such a good concept, and I can't get enough of it.
> 
> \- This looks like a compare and contrast essay turned into a fic. Bye.
> 
> \- Lowkey couldn't think of the right way to format this, but eh.
> 
> \- lol


End file.
